VMware vRealize Automation 8.8.1 Released

VMware has Released vRealize Automation 8.8.1 and vRealize Orchestrator 8.8.1

From this version of this release and forward the release notes for VMware Cloud Automation and vRealize Automation will be the same, where there just will be notes for things that is only for one of the releases.

vRealize Automation 8.8.1

What’s new:

• Ability to enable/disable Log Analytics for Azure VMs – Day2
  • You can now enable/disable Azure VM log Analytics. This allows you to capture VM log data for further analysis by Azure Monitor and Query solutions.
• Manage resource RBAC permissions with quick create VM
  • The deployment manage permission under Role Based Access Control now includes a new feature that allows you to create a VM directly using a single button and wizard independent of a VMware Cloud Template. With this feature you can:
  • Quick create VM
  • Quick create VM with existing network
  • Quick create VM with new/existing storage
• Support for remote vCenter Server Cloud accounts
  • Similarly to 7.x releases of vRealize Automation, vRA 8.8.1 and later now supports the management of remote vCenter Server Cloud accounts. Instead of deploying a whole vRealize Automation instance in a remote site, you can now deploy a small vRealize Automation Extensibility (vREx) Proxy. This proxy VA helps a single central vRealize Automation instance to connect to the remote site and manage its resources. You will need to configure proper firewall rules and networking for a single communication channel only. This way, it is possible to manage resources of multiple sites while still having a simpler setup and and configuration.
  • There is no impact for existing deployments, this is a new feature that is toggled off by default. For additional information on enabling and using the feature, please consult with the vRealize Automation documentation.Learn more.
• Storage limits are applied for Independent Disks and First Class Disks (FCD)
  • Previously, vRealize Automation only supported storage limits for day 0 attached disks and disks added via day2 operation. Independent disk & FCDs were not counted towards the storage limit set by the user. Now, if the disk size exceeds the storage limit set then the deployment will fail. This is also supported in IaaS API.
• Cloud Guardrails Initial Functionality Release (vRA Cloud Only)
  • vRealize Automation has made it a priority to expand our capabilities deeper in the public cloud space. One of the areas we’ve identified to add value is in the provisioning, policy application, and continuous management of public cloud environments with an everything-as-code approach. This release represents our first step toward that vision with vRealize Automation Cloud Guardrails, a feature suite focused on the challenges faced with managing cost, performance, security, networking, and configuration at scale for multi-cloud environments.
  • Our goal is for Cloud Guardrails to tackle the multi-cloud management space ,with tasks like creating on-demand AWS Member Account with appropriate security and IAM configurations, while Cloud Assembly continues to handle the provisioning of services into multi-cloud environments. You’ll see a continuous flow of updates to build-out Cloud Guardrails in service of that goal.
    • Guardrails tab visible in Cloud Assembly
      • The Guardrails tab is now visible in Cloud Assembly for users. The Cloud Guardrails User CSP role is required to operate this new feature suite.
    • Enforce Desired State using Cloud Guardrails
      • Cloud Guardrails at this stage is fundamentally a Salt Idem SLS launcher. Cloud Guardrails take a group of Idem SLS templates, bundled together as composite templates, and define them as a Desired State. A Desired State is a group of templates, or composite templates, with the input parameters provided.
      • Once defined, the Desired State is Enforced which triggers the engine to perform actions such as creating a cloud environment and instantiating cloud-native policies as defined in the Desired State. The system is Idempotent, meaning the end-result is always what is defined templates regardless of whether the actual steps include creating a new environment, updating an existing environment, or just updating a specific policy.
    • In-product library to host VMware-provided templates
      • To assist customers in their journey with Cloud Guardrails, VMware is providing a set of out-of-the-box templates to accomplish common use-cases needed in the public cloud.
      • The initial release of cloud guardrails includes some templates in the library like creating AWS Organizational Units (OU) and Member Accounts and creating IAM roles directly into the public cloud.
      • VMware will continue to build out this library as the feature suite matures and additional functionality is released.

See the full release notes here.

vRealize Orchestrator 8.8.1

What’s new:

• The vRealize Orchestrator Amazon Web Services (AWS) plug-in is updated to use the latest AWS Java SDK.
  • The AWS plug-in now uses version 1.12.209 of the AWS Java SDK. New features for the plug-in include:
    • Access to the latest AWS EC2 features, such as new AWS regions.
    • New and expanded scripting APIs.
  • The update also includes fixes for the plug-in scripting generator and the scripting wrappers for AWS methods having a return type or argument(s) of the Collection type.

See the full release notes here.